Brain bowl, spelling bee contestants win big

Wednesday

Jan 22, 2014 at 3:20 PM

Poised and prepared to battle academically, the 42 students who participated in the 9th annual Black History Cultural Brain Bowl and 5th annual Spelling Bee delivered a friendly, but well-fought competition.

By AIDA MALLARDSpecial to the Guardian

Poised and prepared to battle academically, the 42 students who participated in the 9th annual Black History Cultural Brain Bowl and 5th annual Spelling Bee delivered a friendly, but well-fought competition.And their loyal fans — mostly family armed with iPads and smart phones — recorded their every move as the nearly freezing temperatures failed to dampen the enthusiasm of the nearly 275 people who attended the event held last Thursday at the King Center as part of the King Celebration 2014 sponsored by the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission of Florida Inc.In his greetings, Rodney Long, president and founder of the King Commission, gave a brief overview of the King Commission, which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary."We're so thankful that you're here to support these kids," said Long, adding that from the start, the King Commission wanted to provide more programs to involve youth and children and it has been successful in doing that. He credited Cynthia Mingo, a retired educator and founder and chairwoman of the event, for the success of the brain bowl and spelling bee in engaging youth and children in mind-enriching activities. Long said Mingo will be retiring this year from the event.Mingo said this is her ninth year of organizing the brain bowl, and each year, she creates 300 questions about black history and culture. She said the brain bowl participants are middle and high school students and the spelling bee was added in order to include elementary school students. Twenty students comprising three teams participated in the brain bowl, including PASSAGE Christian Academy, coached by school principal Dr. Fred Ball Jr.; S.E.E.K. from Showers of Blessings Harvest Center, coached by Natalie King and assistant coach Kunitha Melecio, and "The Gladiators" No Limit Foundation, coached by Tabre Watson.The Gladiators won the brain bowl and a $500 monetary award, with S.E.E.K. the runner-up winners of $300. The winners also received pins, a poster, a team trophy and certificates of appreciation.The 22 fifth-graders who participated in the spelling bee duked it out for nearly two hours.In fact, the spelling bee was hard-fought, and after more than 20 minutes of two students competing head-to-head, a first-place tie was declared between Erneshia Pete of Johnson Chapel Baptist Church and Destiny Watson of The Gladiators. The winners received trophies and everyone received pins and certificates of appreciation.Angie Terrell, who coached the spelling bee participants from Johnson Chapel, called the match "electrifying." "It was electrifying to see the participants actively engage in the spelling bee," Terrell said. "It was clear that the spellers were focused and competitive, so much so that the last two contestants battled back and forth more than 20 minutes. Consequently, the judges declared a first-place tie. I'm so proud of both winners, especially Erneshia Pete, my church member and student." Kenneth "Mr. Gladiator" Johnson, founder and president of the No Limit Foundation, said the students did what was expected. "Thank God, for letting their light shine in the kingdom," Johnson said.Tabre Watson, who coached the Gladiators, said the students worked very hard. "We're very proud of these students," Watson said. The Gladiators team consisted of Ariel Watson, Brandon Morgan, Lorenzo Smith, Jeremiah Washington, Kentrell Washington, Chloe Watson and Jailen Watson. King said the S.E.E.K team is the four-time reigning champions and this year's team members were new and had big shoes to fill. "We're proud of our team's effort," King said. "We applaud the Gladiators, sponsored by No Limit Foundation."Continued King, "The beauty of this competition is that our children have an opportunity to learn a little bit about black history. That is what I'm most passionate about."S.E.E.K team members were Raneisha Boston, Eboni Harris, Robert Jackson Jr., Keondrick Johnson, Dezmon Smith and Kelvin White.The PASSAGE Christian Academy team members included T.J. Robinson Jr., Shedrick Burley Jr., Mikell Hankins, Marlik Rouse, Brianna Whickum, Amani Dixon and Elmer Rollins III. They received King Commission T-shirts, pins and certificates of appreciation. "Everyone wins," Mingo said. "When we leave (the event), we know more than when we came."

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